Bubby Jones
Terre Haute,
Ind. (June 3, 1979) – Celebrating his birthday two days early, Bubby Jones put
the icing on his cake at the Terre Haute Action Track, by scoring his second
USAC sprint car feature win in less than 24 hours on Sunday.
It was the
fifth dirt track win of the year for the Jim McQueen-Siebert Olds race team and
increased Jones’ lead over Billy Cassella to 50 points in their battle for the
division’s point crown.
Jones
started the main event from the outside of row one, but polesitter Greg Leffler
put his Armstrong Mould racer into the lead on the green.
Jones got
around Leffler by going low on the backstretch on lap 2, but a yellow flag
negated the change and returned Jones back to second position.
Pancho
Carter, the day’s third fastest qualifier, went high on the cushion on the
restart and charged past Jones between turns one and two and then did likewise
to Leffler between turns three and four to take the lead. Running high and
hard, Carter kept his McCord Auto Supply/Dobbins Chevy in front through lap 13
when a torsion support broke.
As Carter
got sideways, Jones, who had passed Leffler on the third go-round, slipped into
the lead in turn four and was never headed after that.
While Carter
tried valiantly to catch Jones, despite having a crippled racer, Sheldon Kinser
began moving from his seventh starting position. The 1977 national sprint king
battled past Gary Bettenhausen on the 16th circuit and then staged a five-lap
duel with Leffler before passing him for third place.
However,
Kinser could come no close than a few car lengths of Carter the rest of the
way.
At the
checkered flag, it was Jones followed by Carter, Kinser, Cassella, who staged a
late-race surge in his Seymour Enterprises Special, to get around Leffler.
Leffler wound up fifth with Bettenhausen in sixth.
Larry Rice,
Joe Saldana, Rich Vogler amd Roy Hicks won heat races and Gary Bettenhausen led
all the way to capture the semi-main.
Results –
1. Bubby Jones
2. Pancho Carter
3. Sheldon Kinser
4. Billy Cassella
5. Greg Leffler
6. Gary Bettenhausen
7. Rich Vogler
8. Jerry Weeks
9. Larry Rice
10. Roy
Hicks
11. Paul
Pitzer
12. Dana
Carter
13. Steve
Cannon
14. Jeff
Bloom
15. Dave
Peperak
16. Gary
Gray
17.
Red
Bledsoe
18. Tom
Crump
19. Johnny
Parsons
20. Joe
Saldana
No comments:
Post a Comment